Discussion

Most overrated 'luxury food?

Thought of this when I saw the foie gras thread. If this stuff were dirt cheap, I wouldn't bother to make a sandwich out of it. Does anyone feel this way about prime beef? Lobster? Caviar? Truffles? Veal Prince Orloff?

Some of the "luxury" cuts of beef are, to my mind, lacking in flavor. I'll take a hangar steak over a filet mignon. But the other things the OP mentioned, I love! Foie admittedly the least of the bunch (though I love livers).

Foie means liver in French (yes, even human livers), but I'm presuming you mean foie gras. I'm underwhelmed by it too; I love duck livers but the non-fattened ones are already plenty rich, and I find them more flavourful.

Born in Texas but have never lived there long enough to consider myself a Texan. My problem with chicken fried steak is that it's so much harder to get a proper chicken fried steak in a restaurant than a ribeye. Prefer both of them over filet. Two revolvers in the nightstand for the New York reload which I don't think makes me a New Yorker even one little bit. Ha!

I prefer a rib eye or strip but why the lack of love for the filet? Not a lot of beef flavor on its own, but as an ingredient, there is much to be appreciated. You need a filet for Tournedos Rossini. That is a spectacular dish. Try it if you can find it. Hardly anyone makes it anymore because there's just so much work involved. Yes, I live in NY but I'm not a NYer. I'm a hick from down south and I love my double barrel side by side.

I'll see your $30/bottle and raise -- um, LOWER it to $15. Spending on wine can be really out of control for very, very small returns. More than almost any foodstuff, wine can be highjacked by "snob appeal".

The Hudson River strain could have been extirpated from the river, but sturgeon could repopulate the river from nearby areas where they have survived. They would be the same species, just a different population group.

Good point. Restocked from outside sources? I'm just recalling hearsay, so I could have any part of it wrong, or my dimly recalled sources got it wrong. Now I am curious if Bkeats has found and tried some.

Veal has always been something I don't really care for. In this sense, it is overrated for me. So are many other foods like filet mignon. I don't hate filet mignon, but it is just not what I like the most and therefore overrated in my eyes.

we all have one of those aunt's MGZ (or cousin or in-law). Able to make even the simplest of foods into a culinary disaster. I'm not going to claim that instant mashed potatoes are anyone's idea of a gourmet dish, but since the 80's at least they have been edible. I knew someone who could literally turn them to something you could plaster your wall with. You could feel it hardening in your mouth. Her secret recipe. No idea what she did with them. We used to joke that she cooked them with the plastic wrapper. I'm thinking it must have been some ersatz cheese product.